A flower is meant to wither…

On the tree or in a vase, a flower eventually withers and dries up until its petals fall one after the other…

You can admire how beautiful it is, look at it until your eyes never tire yet eventually get distracted, you can caress its soft petals, or even fill up a vase and try to keep it nourished for as long as you can… it withers…

It lives longer on its tree, sheltered by its shades and nourished naturally… but in the vase, it’s noticed even more, it’s appreciated for its sole beauty, not the whole beauty of the scene to which it belongs, it is watered and kept in the light with a kind of attention it shares with no one else… but in the end, it withers…

I try to see it from the flower’s point of view. Would it prefer the tree, it’s home, where the sun may or may not show its beauty, where no one would care to see it, where it’s relatively ­safe? Or would it prefer the recognition if it means a slightly shorter life, and perhaps even the hands that care for it would dry it and use it to bookmark a page that is not meant to be forgotten?

يا زهرة في خيالي… راعيتها في فؤادي

جنت عليها الليالي… و أذبلتها الأيادي

و شاغلتها العيون… فمات سحر الجفون

This verse always makes me heart shiver. Does a flower realize its life is that short? Does it realize it has no will over what comes of it? Does it even choose with which flower it shares a bouquet? Does it choose the face that smiles for seeing it, or the face that resents its short life and deems it worthless of the money it cost?

What would a flower choose to do before it withers? Or would it even care; after all, it is meant to wither…

Flowers should never choose to be cut from its source of life and it’s natural role… to be picked for someone else’s short time of pleasure while it slowly loses what really made it a beautiful flower at the first place.
The natural cycle Gilbert here mentioned is the normal, peaceful and happy way it should be for a flower that wants to live and fruit and contributes in life’s magnificence…

And, i LOVE the song :) ever since you’ve introduced this song to me it rings occasionally in my ears.